Posts Tagged ‘gmat’

I won’t make this post long as I for one would not have read a long debrief. Quick words about me and what helped me get 770.

I am Comp. Science grad from IIT (Good Grad. School in India). Good at Quant, the stereotype. My earlier experience with GMAT was in 2013. I got 690 (Q50, V31) with 1 week OG practice. Had no intention for MBA at that time. Three years down the line (couple of busted startups later), I zeroed in on MBA. 8 weeks preparation.

First 4 weeks was reading Manhattan Prep books, CR Bible, Veritas Prep Books, OG 16 etc. Then I took Manhattan Mock test, I got 680. Was disheartened. I was standing from where I had started. That’s when I read the debriefs from other people on GMAT club and followed the below strategy for next 4 weeks.

1. Stayed away from all non-OG questions. We have ample Official questions available now. Bought revised OG 2017 books. Non-OG questions (no disrespect to any coaching company), are just that non-Official. They are okay to reach 690-700 but the flip side is, they don’t let you go any higher. (My personal opinion)

2. My weak point was SC. I was taking 2min on avg and getting most wrong. Thus I was getting less time for RC and in turn getting them wrong too. CR was decent. So I targeted 1min avg for SC with high accuracy and got to work.

3. I came to know about Ron’s SC videos and finished them all. Gave me a good start.

4. Then came the tough part. I started analysing each Official Question in depth. Specially the wrong answers. I spent around 20-25 min on each SC question. Trying to figure out why the wrong answers are wrong and what rules do they break. Didn’t move to the next question without dissecting the answers. Used google a lot. GmatClub question discussions helped me a lot. Also ManhattanPrep forum discussions for GMAT prep questions are good.

5. Most of it was mental. I stopped looking for best of 5 answers. I started believing that there is no best of 5. Only 1 answer is correct. Rest 4 are horribly wrong. This was the turning point. Once you realise that and start believing that, SC becomes very easy. And horribly wrong 4 answers is what separates Official problems from non-Official problems.

6. RC was mostly getting purpose of passage question right (Ron’s video helped). Detail questions are easy if you have saved time on SC.

7. I bought GMAT Prep Exam pack 1/2. Got regular scores of 750+ there. For those wanting to crack a good score. Please do buy these tests. You get 4 tests. And these are new questions, so you get a good estimate of your score. GMAT Prep (free tests) gets spoiled as you would have seen many of them already.

In conclusion. Concentrate only on everything official. Believe that 4 answers are horribly wrong. You just have to find why.

PS: Am starting at Duke University – Fuqua School of Business, Aug 2017 for 2 year MBA.